Blues' boss claims his men still had their minds on Sunday defeat at Anfield as they dropped two points at home to the bottom club

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Manuel Pellegrini admitted his Manchester City players were mentally shot to pieces as their title challenge came unstuck.

City
boss Pellegrini said his players suffered a hangover from Sunday’s epic
3-2 defeat at title rivals Liverpool and were unable to lift themselves
against bottom club Sunderland.

Wednesday's 2-2 draw has left them six points behind leaders Liverpool and four behind Chelsea, with a game in hand, but reliant on both slipping up to give them any chance of snatching the title.

Connor
Wickham struck twice for Sunderland late on to cancel out Fernandinho’s
early opener, before Samir Nasri equalised with two minutes left to give City hope of salvaging a win the Frenchman almost snatched at the finish.

But
Pellegrini conceded his players had nothing left in the tank after their Anfield showdown and admitted Liverpool and Chelsea are now the favourites to battle it out for the title.

“We
couldn’t take out of our minds the game against Liverpool and that was the consequence of why the team didn’t play well,” said Pellegrini.

“I
was sure that after three days it’s very difficult for the players to take out of their mind the game against Liverpool. We needed more intensity but our mind maybe was not in the moment to do it.

“I
think the players were more mentally tired than physically tired. Mentally it was very difficult to play this game after Liverpool.

“We have five more games to play. We must try to win the games and see at the end of the season which team has more points.

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“Maybe
in this moment Liverpool and Chelsea have a better chance than our team, because we’re in third position, but we’ll continue fighting until
the last game.

“Before this match I was very worried about it. I say to play against a relegated team at the end of the season is always very difficult, because they fight for every ball as though it was the last one.

“My
duty now is to talk with the players and try to win the last five games
and at the end of the season we will see which team has most points.

“Remember
two years ago this team was six points behind the leaders and they won the title at the end. So it’s difficult, but this wasn’t the last game we play.”

Sunderland are now six points from safety with five games left.

Boss Gus Poyet praised the courage his players showed in taking on City.

Next
up for the Wearsider is another trip to a title contender - Chelsea - on Saturday.

Poyet said: “This is going to give us a little bit of that word I hate – confidence -
and we go into the game on Saturday with a different approach.

“We
need to believe it’s possible. We didn’t stop, we didn’t give up, because the players know how important it is for the fans and the club to go to the end, no matter what the result is.”